"O Lord Jesus Christ, Our Great God and Savior" - 13 November 2016 A.M. and P.M.

Sunday morning:

O Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior, your mercies and loving-kindnesses are new every morning. In your incarnation you united our humanity to divinity; you became the Son of Man that we might become sons of God; you brought us life and immortality to consume our death and mortality; and as our great High Priest you regard the humble prayers of all who call upon you, who call upon you in truth. Incline your ear and hear.

Remember your Holy Universal  Church, which you have liberated and laundered with your precious blood, including this church and Emmanuel Tabernacle; Emmaus Baptist Church; Epworth UMC; Everlasting Gospel Lighthouse Church; Faith Bible Church; Faith Crossing Baptist Church; and Faith Fellowship Church. Strengthen, O Lord, and have mercy upon all the ministers, pastors, elders, and overseers of your Church: guide us to feed your flock with the true Gospel, the whole counsel of God, sound doctrine, and rightly administered sacraments. May we pay careful attention to ourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made us overseers, to care for the church of God, which you obtained with your own blood (Acts 20.28). Approve and improve your Church, increase and expand her, and keep her in tranquility and harmony. Heal the splits of the churches, extinguish the furious fuming of the anti-Christians, promptly negate and eradicate all heterodoxy by the power of your Holy Spirit, and beat down Satan under our feet.

Save, O Lord, and have mercy upon those who resent and insult us, those who seek to harm or harass us, forgive them, turn their hearts, and through Jesus Christ bring them and us into your gates with thanksgiving, and into your courts with praise.

Act, O Lord, and have mercy upon all world rulers (such as Kim Jong-un and Park Geun-hye; Xi Jinping; Bashar al-Assad; Vladimir Putin; and Recep Erdoğan), on our president and president-elect, on all our civil authorities, and all the people of this land. Reign supreme, rule over and when necessary over rule our aims and ambitions. May all peoples in all places come to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly before you! / Thank you for the many men and women who took oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic; thank you for their willingness to stand in the gap if called upon, and for weathering many essential (and sometimes idiotic) storms, exercises, conflicts, inspections, deployments and separations.

Revive, O Lord, and have mercy upon all trekking through trouble or trial, strife or suffering…Remember them, draw near to them to hold their heads above water, and by your command and compassion speedily grant them relief, freedom, and deliverance.

Rescue, O Lord, and have mercy upon those who have welcomed Barabbas rather than your Beloved Son; those who have drifted away from or dashed away from the true faith, and those who have become overwhelmed by sickening heresies…; Grant them repentance, to come to the knowledge of the truth and escape the snares of the devil.

And so, Lord Jesus, what we have here faithfully asked may we, please, effectively obtain for the honor of your name! Amen.

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Sunday evening:

You are Father of the fatherless, protector of widows in your holy habitation, who also settles the solitary in a home (Psalm 68.5-6a). And you promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that through them and their offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 28.14). And through the death, resurrection and exaltation of your Son the day is coming when all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you (Psalm 22.27). Give ear to our prayers this day, O Lord.

Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, (Ephesians 3.15), we implore your help for us fathers. Whether we have little tikes, teens or adult children, give us wisdom, insight, and discretion to be the kinds of fathers who reflect your fatherly care and direction. And as you are a father to many ornery children, sons and daughters who grieve you at times, yet you are long suffering, patient, slow to anger and plentiful in mercy, help us to be patient with our children – even the ones who break our hearts. O Lord, hear our prayer.

You, who like a mother, comforts your people (Isaiah 66.12); give these mothers courage and resilience to shower love, strength and gracefulness on their teeny kiddos, growing sons and daughters, and those gone from their homes. May their husbands and children always rise up and call them blessed. Thank you for the deep and durable ways they have cared, prodded, counseled and molded. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Great husband of your people (Hosea 2, Ezekiel 16), whose marriage has never been ideal or painless – but one day it will be beautiful, blissful and brilliant: work in our families that they may be fertile soil where together (husbands, wives and children) we would grow up and fill out in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Bring hope where right now there is only hurt; bring understanding where there has been a history of confusion and conflict; and bring balance where there is disparity. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Lord God, whose only begotten Son served you as an unmarried and chaste man; build up those of our number who are single. May their relationship with you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be rich and robust and their bond with Christian brothers and sisters be deep and delightful. And if it is your pleasure for them to go on in singleness, may they blossom in good order and undivided devotion to the Lord (1 Corinthians 7.35). O Lord, hear our prayer.

Our Father, we pray for our denomination, this congregation, and also Christ Community Church- Frisco, Tx; Westminster Presbyterian Church-Gainesville; Sherwood Shores Chapel-Gordonville; Westminster Presbyterian Church-Greenville; Hill Country Church-Killeen; and Providence Presbyterian Church-Lubbock. Look upon us with your smile, and place your hand on us for good, that we may thrive, and that we may be a safe and salubrious sanctuary for those worn and ripped up by the social gales and secular gusts that are blowing lives and dreams apart. O Lord, hear our prayer.